Most of my friends are PC only gamers and so they often make fun of Apple/Mac products, you know the usual jokes.

Part of their argument against Mac is that they are "overpriced" and "flawed in security and stability" and the only reason we get good resale value is because the market is still small and thus demand for used but still good Macs at a lower price is going to remain high.

As for security and stability they often argue that as Apple's market share grows there will be more Macs and thus more incentive to create viruses and spyware..something they like to say OS X is not at all prepared to handle.

So as Apple continues to succeed and sell more and more computers the PC camp logic is that this will push down the resale value we enjoy selling old Macs (much like how Windows based laptops are basically worthless junk after 2 years and have little to no value) and increase security and stability issues and flaws as more Mac computers enter the mainstream and suddenly its "worth it" to create viruses.

I'm optimistic that as Macs continue to grow in presence Apple maintains the security and stability with more updates and fixes. I'm also optimistic that the resale value will only decrease slightly since Apple should continue to design high quality computers and OS software. (And this is coming from someone whose build and owned Windows PCs for over 10 years before switching to Mac).

I haven't logged in in a while so I came back and found this old thread so I wanted to bump it.

Apple really hit a business home run with the iPod then the iPhone, and finally Job's dream...the iPad. And as people bought these products they eventually stumbled upon the fact that Apple used to go by Apple Computers and continues to make laptops and desktops. I mean my first Apple product was an iPod Nano in late 2005, by mid 2006 I had a Classic iPod and a black Macbook. I now have a new Classic iPod, an iPod shuffle, a 2009 Macbook Pro, and an Apple Cinema Display (2008). So brought in by the iPod and now an Apple buyer...

Which has probably increased their market share. They've showed they can begin to handle to increased market share by responding a little more quickly to patches, viruses, malware, and hackers. But they still have a ways to go on that front....

and going back to my original post months ago....As Apple increases its market share in laptops and desktops due to people buying iPods, iPads, iPhones...will their resale value of their products drop and will they successfully handle the increased visibility. In other words they are becoming more mainstream and popular, they have to be quicker and more keen on security threats to OSes, have to deal with more customers with problems, and the resale market (well we have to deal with the resale market).

As long as the marketshare is increasing or staying the same the resale value should stay the same. If marketshare starts to drop then there will be more old macs than there is demand for and prices will drop.

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